07/11/13 07/11/13 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] >> from pacifica, this is democracy now! america can be a lawful society and a welcoming society at the same time. we can uphold our traditions of assimilating immigrants and honoring our heritage of a nation built on the rule of law, but we have a problem. thelaws governing

immigration system aren't working. >> is former president george w. bush urges republicans to embrace immigration reform, house republicans declare the senate immigration bill dead. we will speak with to market a commerce member pose a could tear as of illinois. we have spent billions and billions. i asked my republican colleagues, when is it enough? >> that a look at the strange case of their brown, an investigative journalist with ties to the hacking collective anonymous, facing over 100 years in jail after revealing details about highly secretive world of private intelligence and military contractors aced on hacked in permission. he has already been held for 300 days. but some of the most important things that have had the most -- isaching influence and

the result of hacking, in permission cannot be obtained by the official journalistic process or won't be obtained by the congressional committee or federal oversight committee. for the most part, that information has to be obtained by hackers. >> all of that and more coming up. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. defense attorneys for army whistleblower bradley manning have rested their case after overng three witnesses -- three days of testimony. defense's final witness warned that finding many guilty of aiding the enemy for handing material to what the leaks could lead to similar charges against any media à la publishing online. also revealed in court, key counterpoint that manning sleek helped al qaeda and osama bin laden. according to david coombs

testimony, it showed been laden asked his aides to see the leaked information only after he saw the u.s. government openly describing wikileaks as a group helpful to u.s. foes. he said -- manning never took the stand to testify in his own defense, but to give a lengthy statement at his pretrial hearing earlier this year. the trial continues next week with arguments over defense motions to have seven of manning's 22 counts dismissed. we will have more on the bradley manning trial later in the broadcast. details continue to emerge on u.s. surveillance of the global internet. the washington post reports the nsa's prism program mining the servers of major internet companies like google and facebook has run in parallel with a separate operation called upstream, theugh nsa taps directly into the

fiber-optic cables that carry the vast majority of global internet traffic. the u.s. has ensured access by sending a group of federal officials dubbed team telekom to reach agreements with global telecom providers area did a 2003 agreement with the asia- based global crossing imposed an internal corporate cell of americans to make sure surveillance requests were approved. global crossing was also forced to establish a us-based network operation center where u.s. agents could show up with just 30 minutes notice. the u.s. has used the federal communications commission as leverage to hold up the approval of cable licenses sought by foreign firms. the nsaas confirmed furnished some of the code installed in its new android phone. says the code is intended to enhance security against hackers and marketers, but won't confirm whether it also aids the agencies prism program monitoring the global internet.

a retired federal judge who served on the foreign intelligence surveillance court that approves government surveillance is calling for reform of the courts duties. the fisa court is come under increased scrutiny in the aftermath of edward snowden's disclosures for essentially crafting a secret, separate body of law that abets wholesale spying. the new york times reported the fisa court has become a parallel supreme court on issuing over a dozen classified rulings that allow the government to seize mass bone records and internet data. the wall street journal reports in a series of orders dating back to the mid-2000, the fisa court, or f ise, endorsed an expansion of the word relevant to mean an entire database of records on millions of people. on tuesday, former member of the fisa court broke ranks to say the secretive judicial body should be stopped from settling matters of policy. speaking at a public hearing, former d.c. circuit judge james robertson said --

the obama administration is proceeding with military aid to egypt one week after the ouster president mohammed morsi. reuters reports the u.s. will send four f-16 fighter jets to egypt as part of an annual aid package. eight more are due later in the year. at the white house, press secretary jay carney said the u.s. is still evaluating whether to brand morsi's removal as a coup, which would require the suspension of military aid. >> we are evaluating how the authorities are responding to and handling the current situation. we will take our time and the time necessary to make the determinations regarding what happened last week and the change of leadership, the removal of president morsi from power. >> egypt's muslim brotherhood has called on supporters to hold

a major rally friday. prosecutors have issued arrest warrants for top motherhood leaders on charges of inciting violence. egypt's interim government says it still hopes to include muslim brotherhood officials in the country's new cabinet. al jazeera is reporting u.s. government helped fund morsi's opponents in the time before his ouster. according to the investigative reporting program at uc berkeley, a state department initiative to promote middle east democracy gave money to a number of opposition activists and politicians, many of whom backed war sees overthrow. the u.s. and china are holding high-level talks in washington, d.c. for second day. on wednesday, joe biden launched the summit with a call for mutual cooperation. >> the stakes are very high because it is fair to say the dynamic that emerges between our nation to affect not just our people to but quite frankly, have a significant impact on the entire world for you to >> the

summit continues to see a clash over the issue of cyber hacking by both sides. the u.s. is asking to an cyber piracy of intellectual property while china has pointed to the u.s. hacking of revealed by edward snowden. the surviving suspect in the boston marathon bombing, dzhokhar tsarnaev, has pled not guilty on 30 counts including the murders of four people. in his first public appearances the violent standoff after the bombing, dzhokhar tsarnaev faced a courtroom packed packed with survivors and victims relatives somedid after the hearing, of those who came said it was difficult to see him in person. just his presence being there after all of the destruction he caused and all of the hurt he caused everyone, just to be the same room with him was [inaudible] i am heading home now. >> i actually felt sick to my

stomach. very emotional for me. i am angry, but i feel really, i don't know, i feel sorry for everybody. >> dzhokhar tsarnaev could face the death penalty if convicted. a texas state house has given final approval to a bill that would ban abortion at 20 weeks postfertilization. it would hinder access to the pill form of abortion and shut down nearly all of the state's abortion clinics. the bill was blocked last month by people's filibuster after texas state senator wendy davis stood and spoke for nearly 11 hours. but governor rick perry revive it by calling a second special legislative session. the bill heads back to the texas senate. during a house vote thursday, several pro-choice people rose to their feet to voice opposition to the proceedings. state troopers moved in. five were reportedly arrested. opponents most vocal of the texas anti-choice bill this week was houston resident sarah slamen.

video of her testimony monday when viral after she was interrupted by the committee chair, republican state senator jane nelson, then hauled from the chamber by state troopers. you,ank you for being texas legislature. you have radicalized hundreds of thousands of us and no matter what you do for the next 22 days, women and their allies are coming for you. let's start down the line. senator campbell, you are an ophthalmologist. you're not an expert on reproductive health. senator hager, you are -- >> >> just a minute. but excuse me, this is my government, ma'am. i will judge you. and i will speak against an ophthalmologist who says everyone on the internet can see what you're doing right now. this is a farce. the texas legislators is a bunch of liars. is gary oldham here?

go ahead. >> [inaudible] >> the texas house vote was on wednesday. in north carolina, state house republicans have rushed a quietly advanced anti-choice restriction by attaching them to a bill on motorcycle safety. some members of the north carolina house committee were surprised by the move for you -- sam queen tweeted the bill imposes a series of restrictions could excite are aimed at shutting down clinics. the provisions are similar to those passed by the north carolina senate last week without a public hearing as part of the bill to bar sharia law in the state. republican governor pat mccrory had voiced consortiums about the way the bill was forced through without the typical procedures in what some pro-choice critics have deemed a sneak attack area did a split among democrats has

blocked an effort to reduce -- reverse the dublin of interest rates on federally subsidized student loans. the interest rate for stafford loans doubled to 6.8% earlier this month. on wednesday, a bipartisan group of senators blocked a democratic proposal to return the rate to 3.4% retroactively. several democrats join a republican filibuster after democratic leaders rejected their proposal to link the student loan rate to market rates and the cost of federal debt. lawmakers can still reverse the interest hike if they act before most loans are issued next month area did california has asked the supreme court to release it in order to reduce its prison population by about 10,000 prisoners this year. a federal panel recently reaffirmed radius incisions ordering the california prison system to reduce overcrowding due to inhumane conditions. at least one california printer "needlessly dies every six or seven days due to constitutional

deficiencies." california has had a prisoner suicide rate that at times has been 80% higher than the national average three it in their filing, officials sought permission to ignore the overcrowding order, citing what is that are improved conditions. the request comes just as dearly 29 -- as dearly 29,000 california prisoners have .aunched a hunger strike the strike is in its third day and could become the states largest ever. a group of major north american retail giants unveil their own version of a safety plan for garment factories in bangladesh. the proposal calls for $42 million in spending on worker safety, $100 million in available loans, and factory inspections within 12 months. but unlike the safety plan adopted by most the european retailers, the new commitments are not legally binding. major u.s. companies including walmart, gap, and target advanced their version after refusing to endorse european agreement.

both measures followed the factory collapse that killed more than 1100 garment workers in april in a fire that killed 112 people last november. in addition to shining binding standards, the u.s. version also calls for "shared accountability " in paying for the required safety improvements. the european plan puts the onus for safety funding on the retailers themselves. in a statement, five labor rights groups including the workers rights consortium and the united states against sweatshops, criticized u.s. retailers, saying -- the city council and washington, d.c. has approved a measure that would force large retailers to pay workers a living wage of at least $12 50 cents an hour. the vote came into fines of a threat from the world's largest

retailer, walmart, which says it will cancel plans to build three new stores in the d c area. the living wage rule applies to so-called big-box retailers with stores of at least 75,000 square heat, and annual revenue of at least $1 billion. the bill excludes existing businesses and stores with unionized workplaces. mayor vincent gray has yet to disclose whether or not to issue a veto. he faces every pressure from major retailers. in addition to canceling plans for three stores, walmart says it will consider scrapping another three already under construction. approved audge has request by chevron to subpoena the personal internet information of more than 100 people, including environmental activists, journalists, and lawyers. chevron is seeking the records as part of its effort to bring a conspiracy case against the plaintiffs who have won an $18 billion judgment against the company for polluting ecuador's rain forest.

are othe individuals parties to the lawsuit against chevron, but chevron says they may be directly or indirectly involved. chevron is seeking the ip addresses that show the time and location of every single login over nine years. virginia's republican governor robert mcdonnell is facing new scrutiny over newly revealed funding from a prominent donor. the washington post reports mcdonnell and his family received an additional 100 20,000 dollars from star scientific ceo johnny williams. the money came in the form of a $70,000 transfer your corporation owned by mcdonnell and his sister in a separate $50,000 check to mcdonnell's wife. mcdonnell says it was intended as a loan. he is already under investigation for excepting $20,000 in gifts from williams in exchange for promoting his company dietary supplement as an option for medicare recipients. canadian province of québec say the number of confirmed dead from a freight train disaster has risen to 20

with another 30 people still missing. the train was carrying crude oil from north dakota when it derailed and slammed into the town center. on wednesday, the head of the railroad company involved said in error by the a train engineer was likely to blame. >> this was a failure of the brakes. it is very questionable whether the hand brakes were properly applied on this train. or elseay they were not we would not have had this incident. toclosing arguments expected begin today the second-degree murder trial of george zimmerman. on wednesday, his defense wrapped up its case with zimmerman declining to take the stand to his fatal shooting of trayvon martin, an unarmed african-american teenager. although zimmerman refused to testify an intern avoided cross- examination, jurors were able to hear his side of the story in court to recordings of his statements to police as well as a televised interview with fox news conducted a year ago.

haderman told fox news he no regret about the of trayvon martin and that it was part of a "god's plan." although it acknowledged zimmerman followed martin and ignored a police dispatcher's instruction to leave him be, defense attorneys have sought to portray martin as the aggressor. the artist, film maker and activist seeger has died at the age of 91. she was the wife of pc girl and a key beater and artistic programmer for the great hudson river revival. the annual fundraiser for the organization that helped to clean up the hudson river in new york. she died tuesday, less than two weeks short of what would have been their 70th wedding anniversary. those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. >> welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. the push to pass a conference of immigration reform bill this year faced a major setback wednesday after house

republicans gathered behind closed doors to discuss whether they would support a bill passed just last month in the senate. session,s two-hour speaker john boehner urged his fellow republicans to take action in a way that reflected the parties principles. afterwards, he joined major -- majority leader eric cantor and others in issuing a statement saying -- "rather than take up the flawed legislation rushed through the senate, house committees will continue their work on a step- by-step common sense approach to fixing what is long been a broken system." [star-spangled banner]

>> earlier wednesday, hundreds of dreamers and their parents participated in an aspirational citizenship ceremony at a park near the capital. one of the speakers at the event was congress member luis gutierrez from illinois. he joins us from the capital. immigrationair of task force of the congressional hispanic caucus, and member of the bipartisan house gain of seven that has been working on a broad immigration reform bill. he has an upcoming tour planned in which you will visit republican greg -- congressional districts to build bipartisan support for immigration reform. are reports of the immigration bill being dead exaggerated? >> and washington, d.c., it is kind of the favorite of journalists around here. be ors they should tensions. they love to kill everything.

this is far from dead. it is alive and well. it is a very broad, expansive, deep movement. when you get the new york times and the wall street journal synonymously the praises of conference of immigration, we have the afl-cio sitting down the chamber of commerce and reaching an agreement, when you have the united farm and the growers across this country reaching an agreement, when you have evangelicals and very progressives on the religious front together, working together -- look on it is very broad and deep and we are going to be successful. here is what i think. i think the republican party is going to have to make a decision. i think that is the quandary they find themselves in and that is reflection of yesterday's meeting. there are those that could take the party forward. paul ryan says we should not have a two-tiered society where

we have a permanent underclass. he wants to and that underclass and bring them out of the shadows and into american citizenship. then you have others who simply do not like immigrants. look, you can put as many people as you want on the border. sealed andcould be impenetrable. they still would not vote for conference of immigration reform or any reform. to them, one immigrant is one immigrant too many and they're never going to come around. good, solide are voices and the republican party that are going to in the end prevail on this issue. lastly, there's something very unique about this moment. and that is, i have been here 20 years. votes.re more than 218 there is a majority in the house of representatives to conference of immigration reform. that has never been there before.

there are dozens of republicans that are ready to join a couple hundred of democrats to get this done. do is leteaker has to democracy flourished in the house of representatives and allow us to vote. let's not buy into this this senate bill, the senate bill, the senate bill. the only one saying we should adopt the senate bill is chuck schumer from new york. apart from him, i think everybody else understands you need to be respectful of the legislative process in the house of representatives. stop using that as an excuse. we are working on a bipartisan basis. with theork congressman. we will work with them and others to formulate a bipartisan proposal. ,> congressman luis gutierrez the proposals and the house, none of the separate portions of legislation that they have presented include legislation

that would provide a path to citizenship. congressman last night on the news hour said he doesn't believe your estimate there is a majority support for a pathway to citizenship exists in the house. could you respond to those issues? pre-k's sure. number one, let me say, let's have a vote. -- let'sosition is have a vote. the only way you will have an answer to this question is allow a vote. they say they want a majority of the majority to be for something. of 435r words, 125 out members dictate the future of policy in the house of representatives? that is a minority. that is 30%. 30% dictates the future? the american public spoke clearly and unequivocally on november 4.

the republican party has a position to make. there are many, former president bush, his brother jeb bush, karl rove. they are ready and working in advancing the cause of comprehensive immigration reform. for whatever reason, i believe many of them believe there should be a solution to our broken immigration system. others simply want to take it off the table. it doesn't matter what the motivation is. the fact is, they're looking for a solution. i will be very clear. tsunami a democratic coming for the republican party and it is reflected in george bush in 2004 got over 40% of the latino vote. in the last election, the republican nominee barely got over 20% of the vote. more latinos are voting, not only is the percentage going down, but the number of latinos actually are dissipating in the electoral system is increasing. look i'm a do they want to be a

party of provinces and counties statesas of the united or do they want to be a national party? that is a decision they're going to have to make as they move forward on this issue. you're going on another one of your national tours on immigration reform, going into some of these republican house districts in the coming months? >> i am going to leave tomorrow and we will be going out and it is cherry picking season. i want to be with the workers. i want to be with the actual producers, right? we want to combine the workers with the actual farmers that are there any growers to show america this is about economic security and vitality. or i want to show the nation at least attempt to show the nation, you know something? it is hard, backbreaking work. someone has to work in those fields every day. we want to go and meet with the growers read -- and those who

pick apples and then i want to go to the naacp. let me tell you something. the black caucus and the black community in the united states has been such a foundation for our immigration. i want to go out and continue to coordinate. the movement is broad and very deep, and it will not be denied. you can delay this breed i agree you can delay it, but you cannot stop it area did it is inevitable. thousands of latinos turned 18 every year. how many are citizens? i am only talking about the ones that are citizens. this is growing. we are going to achieve it. in the end, all speaker boehner has to do is give us a vote. if you does, there will be more than 218 votes i am sure. >> the chair of the house judiciary committee spoke

earlier this week about his party's reasons for opposing -- opposing immigration reform passed in the senate. he began by referencing the last immigration reform bill that passed in 1986 and was signed into law by president ronald reagan. >> in 1980 six they gave an easy pathway to citizenship to nearly 3 million people with the promise of greater enforcement for employer sanctions and other new things to prevent a repeat of immigration. that was never put into effect not just by this president, but by all the interceding presidents as well. this senate bill gives a legal status, a longer path would've a citizenship, but the legal status almost immediately to maybe 11 million or more people. and then says, we will fix the border, putting either of five, entry/exit visa system, and other things we've said we need to have. they don't do it until after they have given them legal

status and most people think the legal status is what most people were not lawfully present in the united states won anyway. so a repeat of 1986. i think the special pathway to citizenship, he giving us who have come illegally versus those whose have followed the rules and gone through the petitions where they get the status automatically just by virtue of having been here legally and for a p of time ise about president as well. finally, no significant interiorrio enforcementd. 35% or 40% of the people who illegally entered through visas and simply overstayed. the border itself,. securing that is not enough. >. >> that was republican bob goodlatte, the chairman of the house judiciary committee.

tom cotton wrote thing you have that tweet just put out there come a twitter message posted last night i --merce member from kansas congress member from kansas who wrote so where is this headed, luis gutierrez commerce member? you have george w. bush supporting your position. >> i think chairman goodlatte is wrong. they talk about the 1986 legislation.

people got3 million green cards and five years later they applied for american citizenship. but this thing about border enforcement? the only thing it has with employers sanctions, and the me tell you what happened as soon as the bill was passed. because there was no pathway for new workers to come and build the economic backing that exists in our economy and exists in certain localities in the united states, because there was no way for new workers and immigrants to come to america to build that vacuum, they came undocumented to the united states in order to fill that. guess who were the first people to call? republican members of congress calling and saying, i don't have enough people to pick apples or grapes or work in my factories where the meatpacking plants in my district. i need you to set aside -- what

we're doing -- how can you say this is not money mentally different -- monumentally different when democrats who have never been for of course the only allow 700 miles of fences as they have in the senate proposal? look, you can say there is no enforcement. the fact is, they are militarizing the border in order to reach an agreement to allow a 11 million people to live in the united states and have some sense of justice and fairness. mr. goodlatte should understand that. our proposals have always been about enforcement. they are using positions that have been completely discredited and discarded. it is almost as if in the house of representatives nothing happened november 6. there was not an electoral demand for conference of immigration reform.

let me reiterate. esther goodlatte is an outlier -- mr. goodlatte is an outlier. the movement has brought everybody compromising. everybody is sitting at a table and saying, what do we have to do to work together? the senate. compromise in the senate. 14 republicans, 54 democrats get together, 68 of them. everywhere there is compromise and working together to solve the problem, except the house of representatives. in the end, they have to simply allows a vote. leave the rhetoric aside and allow us a vote and we can fix our broken immigration system. ,> congressman luis gutierrez you have been an ally with paul ryan on this issue and you are

close to him. do you think paul ryan would or will lead the charge in the house to really get some kind of a pathway to citizenship in the legislation that the house considers? >> number one, he believes in it. he has stated it. i am very, very proud of him that in spite of this very ugly rhetoric from some sectors of his party, he has stood up and consistently said i'm a we need a pathway to citizenship. and like paul ryan, there are dozens of other democrats -- i'm sorry, dozens of other republicans that are ready to vote. simply allow us to vote. why are you afraid? if you don't believe there are sufficient numbers of democrats and republicans to pass copper its of immigration reform, then maybe you are right. you are saying it is your way or no way. everyone else is compromising. everyone else. the only place where people say and i don'tatus quo

want to fix this is in the house of representatives and it is in the republican caucus of the house of representatives. my view is, allow democracy to flourish, allow a vote. 8 people will vote. more than 218 will vote for conference of the gratian reform. they know we have the votes. >> thank you, congress member luis gutierrez, from illinois, for joining us. he is planning a tour starting tomorrow to visit republican congressional districts to drum up support for immigration reform. stay with us. this i ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and

peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. as nsa leaker edward snowden airport,t a moscow army whistleblower bradley manning is on trial and wikileaks founder julian assange is hold up in an ecuadorian , today we lookon at the strange story of another anti-that world of cyber activism who faces over 100 years in prison. his name is barrett brown. .e is an investigative reporter he has spent the past 300 days in jail and has been denied bail. charges ranging from threatening an fbi agent to credit card fraud for posting a link online to a document that contained stolen credit card data. supporters,g to his brown is being unfairly targeted during to -- investigate the highly secretive world of private intelligence and defense contractors. crossede brown's path

with the fbi, he frugally contributed to vanity fair, the huffington post, guardian and other news outlets. in 2009, brown created project pm which was -- he was particularly interested in the documents leaked by wikileaks and anonymous. in a documentary, there are brown explains the importance of information obtained by hackers. >> some of the most important things that i've had the most far-reaching influence in terms of what has been discovered is the result of hacking. that information could not be obtained by the journalistic process or won't be obtained by congressional committee or federal oversight committee. for the most part, the information has to be obtained by hackers. >> in 2011, the group anonymous hacked into the computer system of the private security firm hbgary federal and disclosed

thousands of internal e-mails. there are brown has not been accused of being involved in a hack, but he did read and analyze the documents, eventually crowd sourcing the effort through project pm. one of the first things he discovered was a planned at times the reputations of wikileaks unsympathetic journalists claim greenwald of the guardian. brown similarly analyzed and wrote about the millions of internal company e-mails for stratfor global intelligence that were leaked on christmas eve 2011. shortly thereafter, the fbi acquired a warrant for brown's laptop and authority to seize any information from his communications -- or in journalism parlance, his sources. troupe ofer 2012, a armed agents surged into his apartment in dallas, texas and handcuffed him facedown on the floor. he has been imprisoned ever since. joined bye we're peter ludlow, professor of philosophy at northwestern university. he has written

extensively on hacktivist actions against private intelligence firm's and the surveillance state. his recent article for the nation is called, "the strange case of barrett brown." talk about this case. >> it is important for two reasons, first of all, it is showing to some extent all of us could be targets because the principal reasons they're going after him with this sort of claim that he was involved in credit card fraud or something like that, i mean, that is completely salacious. in effect what he did was take a link from a chat room and copied that and pasted it into the chat room for project pm. that is, he took a link broadcast widely on the internet and it was a link to the stratfor hack information and he just brought it to the attention of the editorial board of project pm. because for whatever reason

there were unencrypted credit card numbers and validation codes among those 5 million other e-mails, the government is claiming he was engaged in credit card fraud, that project enterprise.iminal basically, for our interest, what is interesting to us, it makes this dangerous to even link to something or share a link with someone. >> one of the things he raised and some of your writings on this is the incestuous relationship between the justice department, the government, and these private firms that are been targeted now by cyber activists. could you talk about that as well? >> a lot of these private intelligence companies are people.by ex cia, nsa some people come from those

agencies and rotate back into the government. even with the case of snowden, he was a contractor for a private intelligence company, whose island -- booz allen. people think these are the people doing the surveillance, doing this intelligence work, but really, if you look at how much the united states spends on that isence, 70% of actually going to these private intelligence contractors. , fbi, add up cia, nsa that is just the tip of the iceberg. there is all this sort of spook stuff going on in the private realm. a lot of it is very incestuous, a revolving door. no one is investigating or even talking about it. >> let's go to bear brown. in march 2012, democracy now! spoke with him soon after his house was raided. >> on march 5 i received a tip i was about to be raided by the fbi. i left my apartment in dallas in

which my mother's residence in the same city. the next morning three fbi surround my mother's place. they said my apartment had been rated. would be any damage taking care of. they asked if i had any laptops with me that i wanted to give them. i said no. a few hours later the fbi returned and asked -- with another warned, this time for my mothers house and detained both of us for three hours while they searched the residence. they found several laptops i had stashed in the house and left the search warrants and left a note of my apartment, which i got when i came back the next day or so. the words themselves refer to the information they are seeking as regarding anonymous and others. hbgary and in game systems are

intelligence contracting companies that anonymous had a run-in with in 2011 during which a number of e-mails were taken, hbgary in particular, that revealed conspiracies in conjunction with the justice department. and the time since i've spent a lot of time going over those e- mails, researching them, conducting research, otherwise trying to expose a number of things that have been discovered by virtue of those e-mails from hbgary. i sincerely believe my two buddies on that front country did me to being raided and no doubt will contribute to any further action the fbi decides to take. the justice department itself is very much intertwined with this issue and has been for a while. can conduct a fair investigation against me based on what i have revealed.

brown in hisear own words just after the raid. peter ludlow, talk about what he had released. talk about what he got from hbgary and how this links to glenn greenwald. -- it ishey uncovered a little subtle. with the bank of america being concerned wikileaks had information on it. bank of america goes to the u.s. department of justice. the u.s. department of justice williams, whohunt in turn hooks them up with a group of private intelligence which had a number of proposals and projects that were exposed in all of this.

they included running a kind of silence operation against -- cy- ops operation in an attempt to undermine glenn greenwald and other individuals. there were many, many planes they had come in many, many things but some of documents released showed they were going to create fake documents, leaked them to glenn greenwald and when greenwald eventually release them, they would expose it as a fraud and attempt to undermine him in that way. they had a similar chain for chamber watch as well. >> the concern was glenn greenwald's of wikileaks was giving them legitimacy. >> yes. they said in their, well, he is just a professional journalist and he will fold under pressure immediately. apparently, they were wrong about that. foundre were also e-mails

where these private security firms were assessing the damage that journey scale's books had done -- jeremy schedules books had done to blackwater? >> i ran across that in the stratfor leaks. it were monitoring this because they were concerned lack water was going to get into the private intelligence business themselves. they were commenting on scahill. saying, i don't care much for his politics, but he really has these guys figured out. that was a little complement fors cahill. the amazing thing in all of this, is the degree to which these private security firms are engaging in attempts to influence what is going on in the public debate on intelligence. >> oh, yes. one of the crazy things is when coca-cola approached stratfor, they were concerned about peta. one of the people in stratfor

said, well, the fbi has a classified file on peta and i will see if i can get it for you. orst of all, why are private why is coca cola going to a private intelligence company for this? why did the private intelligence company feel a had immediate access to a classified file by the fbi? and why did the fbi have a classified file to begin with? to me the creepy as part of very creepy little story is the fact he had at stratfor felt access to this classified file by the fbi. casearrett brown reveal this as well. it is all most like the fbi has become just another private security firm, that it has become like a private cop for these companies, as it were. that is part of because of the revolving door and because they get pressed into service for

companies that want insider information on activist organizations like peta. >> we're going to take a break and then come back to this conversation with peter ludlow, professor of philosophy at northwestern university, has written extensively on hacktivist actions against private intelligence firm's and the surveillance state. his recent article for the nation is called, "the strange case of barrett brown." when we come back, how he could phase 100 years in prison. -- he could face 100 years in prison. we will talk about aaron swartz. ♪ [music break]

>> this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. peter ludlow is our guest come a professor of philosophy at northwestern university, has been tracking the case of barrett brown. he wrote a piece about him, "the strange case of barrett brown." the fbi raid his home in the ultimately is arrested. he faces 100 years in prison? >> yes, if you add up all of the charges and he serves them sequentially, it will be 105 years in prison. >> and the decision for no bail? >> that is a mystery to me. he has been in jail for over 300 days with no bail. thea while they had frozen contributions to his legal fund. >> that sounds like wikileaks, meaning that is what happened --

well, wikileaks they had these different corporations like paypal refuse to allow money. >> right. >> let's go to an interview bear brown did. >> our people break laws, just like all people break laws. when we break laws, we do so in civil disobedience, ethically, against targets -- >> targets that have asked for it. what do you been? >> targets that have engaged that it is either unethical, like contrary to the values of this age like information freedom. >> sometimes just plain common sense in the case of them going after journalists, like wikileaks. >> but you can attack websites? >> yes. can hack them, sometimes take over the websites themselves.

hbgary like we did with the companyhbgary. >> you can -- >> take it over. >> government contractors -- iran, we tookbya, down or replaced websites. we replace them with messages of what we're doing and why and what we will provide if they choose to revolt. >> [inaudible] >> i am not worried about it, but i will get prosecuted at some point, yes. >> [inaudible] >> because they can do whatever they want to anyone they want. >> but you aren't worried? >> no. i am well protected. >> what you mean? >> i have a lot of lawyers. if they come after me, they will not like everything they see. >> that is barrett brown. the fact is, he has been imprisoned now for 300 days and faces decades in prison.

can you explain, that is when he was an anonymous spokesperson, what anonymous is? also talk about the groups he exposed? >> sure read i have to think he was a little optimistic there. he was related to anonymous, which is not a group, per se, you or i could claim to be members of anonymous. it is more like a flag you fly if you choose to. ofwas a loosely knit group activists. some were more intersecting. they carried out attacks against various private intelligence contractors -- out hacks against various private intelligence contractors. he is right the arab spring in tunisian uprising and so, members of anonymous did a lot of work in keeping protesters

online and minimizing the effectiveness of the government's in the middle east at that time. thethen you asked about endgame systems, for example. endgame is interesting. it is this kind of very secretive private intelligence company. hackven see in the hbgary i'm a these messages were someone from endgame says in an e-mail, we don't ever want to see our name in a press release from you guys. what makes it particularly interesting is if you read the search warrant that is issued to barrett brown when he is busted, says, we are looking for stuff related to hbgary and endgame systems. why endgame systems? this is a corporation involved in what i call zero day exploit. what is that? basically, that means there are certain security flaws in the

software that we have and we use , and sometimes the company doesn't know about it. sometimes it is known about for seven days and then had seven days to work on it. zero day exploit is when the software company doesn't know about it. endgame systems packages these things and sells them. for example, they have one work you get a subscription for like $2.5 million here and you get these exploits. things a hacker would do, but because their business and making money for it, it apparently is ok, right? it seems the justice department is kind of running interference for these guys. don't take my word for it, there's a great article in businessweek in in which they talk about the guys from endgame setting up slides and showing tellingets in airports, you what the computers are running their, and what kind of -- with the vulnerabilities are. >> who runs in game?

where are they based? >> they are based in atlanta, georgia, i believe. someone recently posted a video on youtube in which you walk into the place and -- he walked into the place and the people, i think it started by an ex intelligence person and by a security guy at ibm. >> and project pm? >> one of the genius things about their round was -- barrett brown is he wanted to crowd source this information. if you get a hack of stratfor of 5 billion e-mails, how do you sort through it question mark he had a number of friends and acquaintances, including michael hastings, the reporter who just died in a suspicious car accident. he would basically crowd source this read -- this.

the case were he copied this link, he was notifying members of project pm where they could find from the stratfor hack. >> what will happen to bear brown right now? he is in a texas jail. >> he has a great legal team. charles swift is one of them, from the judge advocate general that took that gitmo case all the way to the supreme court. >> jag. there is a group of individuals with fr eebarrettbrown.com raising money for him. they are available if you have questions. >> we will certainly follow this case, peter ludlow. he has written extensively on hacktivists. his most recent piece in the nation is called, "the strange case of barrett brown." we will have a link on democracynow.org. democracy now! is looking for feedback from people who appreciate the closed captioning. e-mail your comments to

outreach@democracynow.org or mail them to democracy now! p.o. box 693 new york, new york 10013. [captioning made possible by democracy now!]